Allen and Dieruff alums for 1984-1990 will battle in Powder Puff football to help fight pancreatic cancer.

Jennifer Glose remembers what the Allen-Dieruff rivalry was like when she was at Allen in the 1980s.

"We were always at each other's throats back then," she said.

And that included the annual Powder Puff football game, a charity event that was always part of the festivities leading up to the annual season-ending battle between the Huskies and Canaries varsity teams.

"It was intense," Glose said.

Now, nearly 25 years after she graduated, Glose has come to realize that the Huskies and Canaries have a lot more in common than your average dogs and birds.

"Many of us are good friends now," she said. "We work together, we socialize together."

She believes the current Allen and Dieruff students could learn a thing or two about how kids from rival schools can, and should, come together for something positive.

That's one of the reasons Glose is staging a Powder Puff for Pancreatic Cancer game featuring Allen and Dieruff alums from 1984 to 1990 at 2 p.m. on April 20 at J. Birney Crum Stadium.

Glose, a 41-year-old single mother of two who played for Ed Stinner's softball teams in the 1980s in addition to being on the original Powder Puff team, is a story in her own right.

She proves perseverance pays off, going back to college nearly 20 years after she left school and got married and raised now 12-year-old Noah and 9-year-old Linsey.

Glose graduated from Lehigh-Carbon Community College in 2011 with an associate degree in communications, but didn't stop there.

After a semester off, she enrolled at Cedar Crest College and is majoring in media studies.

Glose needed to come up with a senior project and chose the Powder Puff game as a way to rekindle old friendships, bring people together and raise money for an outstanding cause.

The cause is personal for Glose because several years ago she lost a good friend to pancreatic cancer. Josette Burton-Walton, a 1988 Allen High graduate, died in 2010 at the age of 39. She left behind a husband, two sons and a daughter.

"Josette was on the Powder Puff team," Glose said. "She was a great lady. I have participated in walks to benefit the Lustgarten Foundation for pancreatic cancer research in her memory. I decided that if we were going to do a benefit game that's where the proceeds will go and it's all going to be dedicated to Josette.

Glose has been busy since May coordinating all aspects of the game, including securing donations and sponsors and ironing out details with the school district. She has met with superintendent Russell Mayo, stadium manager Scott Cooperman and other officials.

She created a Facebook page for the event, and even secured a 20-foot trailer from one of her teammates to decorate and use as a float in next month's Allentown St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Glose, who has been studying communications and media, intends to use the public relations tools at her disposal to get the word out.

As for the teams, she has held a few signups and is hoping to fill up rosters of approximately 25 for both Allen and Dieruff. Bob Steckel, who coached the original Allen Powder Puff squad, will come back to coach the Allen alumni team, while Keith Kuhns, a former Dieruff player and current coach, will coach the Huskies alums.

"Because this is my senior project, I wanted it to be kind of a reunion for girls that I played with and against and that's why we're taking alums from 1984 to 1990," she said.

The boys cheer squads will also feature alums from 1984 to 1990, although you don't have to have previous experience to make the boys cheer squad. Former Allen and Dieruff cheerleading coaches Nancy Cusati and Paulette Kish will be in charge of the boys cheering squads.

Practices for the teams are expected to begin on the weekend of March 23-24. Many of the former players she has talked to are excited and eager to get back on the J. Birney Crum turf.

"They can't wait because they haven't forgotten what it felt like back then," she said.

Glose said she has been touched by how many of her friends at both schools have been affected by pancreatic cancer in some way.

"There is a feeling of unity about this; I don't think anybody cares about winning," Glose said. "It's about coming together. That's why we want to invite the current Allen and Dieruff football players, band members and cheerleaders to come out and support this. We think they can learn something from it."

Liza Gantert, a former Allen classmate and teammate of Glose's, is on the event committee and marvels at the amount of work Glose has put into this event already, and remember, there are two months of preparation still to come,

"Jen is one of the most genuine people I know and she has put her heart into this," Gantert, the vice chairman of the Lower Macungie Township Parks and Recreation board, said. "I am so proud to be a part of this, but honestly, I do not know how she is pulling this off. She is a dynamo."